Public Health Proposal Considers Mandatory ‘Smokers License

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – A public health proposal suggests that tobacco smokers should be required to apply and pay for a “smoker’s license” in order to continue buying cigarettes.

In this week’s PLOS Medicine medical journal, two leading tobacco control advocates debate the merits of the smoker’s license. Simon Chapman, a professor at the University of Sydney, proposes that users would have to apply and pay for a mandatory license in the form of a smartcard that would be shown when buying cigarettes.

Dr. Chapman wrote that it could discourage young people from picking up the habit.

1. We already pay more in taxes than for the cigarettes themselves.

I think we should license people to buy alcohol first, then people who buy twinkies, then people who buy Papa John's pizza, and those people who stand in the middle of the grocery store isle and don't leave others room to get by...